January

The American Academy of Arts and Letters awards Strauss Livings to writers Gish Jen and Claire Messud; the prizes, for $250,000, are given out every five years.

January 2

Nature magazine publishes two studies showing that global warming is causing many different species of plants and animals to change their ranges or alter their reproductive habits; the scientists are alarmed at the extent of the change, given the small amount of warming that has taken place and the greater amount that is predicted.

Officials of Los Alamos (N.M.) National Laboratory announce the resignation of John C. Browne as director; the nuclear weapons laboratory has been under investigation because of apparent corruption and missing equipment.

January 3

In Caracas, Venez., a peaceful protest against the administration of Pres. Hugo Chávez is intercepted by pro-government demonstrators, and a great street fight ensues, leaving at least two people dead; an antigovernment strike had begun 33 days earlier.

Brazil suspends the planned purchase of 12 new fighter jets, intending to devote the money to alleviating hunger instead.

Peru’s Supreme Court issues a ruling invalidating some of the antiterrorism laws passed under former president Alberto K. Fujimori; there are expected to be a large number of retrials as a result.

In the annual postseason Fiesta Bowl, Ohio State University defeats the University of Miami, Fla., 31–24 in double overtime to win the national college football Division I-A championship.

January 4

India announces that it has created a nuclear command authority, headed by the prime minister; Pakistan already had such an entity, and the countries spent much of 2002 at loggerheads.

The National Society of Film Critics chooses The Pianist as the best film of 2002.

January 5

A man steals a small private airplane and threatens to crash it into the European Central Bank building in Frankfurt am Main, Ger.; much of downtown is evacuated, and the city is paralyzed for several hours until the man is talked down, saying he wished to commemorate the American astronaut Judith Resnick, who died in the Challenger explosion in 1986.

Two suicide bombers set off their bombs in downtown Tel Aviv, Israel, killing 23 people in addition to themselves and injuring scores.

In the runoff presidential election in Lithuania, the right-wing candidate Rolandas Paksas unexpectedly defeats incumbent Valdas Adamkus, who held the lead in the first round of voting.

January 6

The International Atomic Energy Agency passes a resolution demanding that North Korea readmit IAEA inspectors lest the agency be required to refer the matter to the UN Security Council.

Kenyan Pres. Mwai Kibaki’s new cabinet is sworn in; it is the first non-KANU cabinet in 39 years.

The city of Louisville, Ky., merges with surrounding Jefferson county, putting it for the first time among the top 20 U.S. cities in population; other cities are considering similar changes because the metropolitan areas are finding that city and suburbs increasingly have common interests.

Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India, bans the slaughter of cows, which are held to be sacred by Hindus.

A large statue of the Hindu deity Krishna, under construction for the past six years and nearly complete, collapses and kills three workers outside New Delhi.

January 7

Great Britain mobilizes 1,500 reservists in support of a possible war against Iraq.

For the first time, under a presidential decree, Christmas (today on the Coptic Christian calendar) is celebrated as a national holiday in Egypt, an almost entirely Muslim country.

Shlomo Koves becomes the first Orthodox Jewish rabbi inaugurated in Hungary since before the Holocaust.

The Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty rebukes Bjørn Lomborg for his book The Skeptical Environmentalist, finding that it is “clearly contrary to the standards of good scientific practice.”

Catcher Gary Carter and switch-hitter Eddie Murray are elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

January 8

A U.S. court of appeals rules that the government during wartime may detain indefinitely a U.S. citizen captured as an enemy combatant and deny him access to a lawyer.

The United States Sentencing Commission approves a plan to lengthen prison sentences for people convicted of corporate crimes, such as securities fraud.

The U.S. opens talks intended to lead to a free-trade agreement with Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras.

January 9

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed El Baradei report to the UN Security Council that Iraq’s disclosure of weapons programs was insufficiently informative but that inspectors have found no evidence of weapons or programs.

Astronomers announce that they have found 26 galaxies and 3 quasars approximately 13 billion light-years away, which means they date from early in the period that light first appeared in the universe.

January 10

North Korea announces that it is withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty; the following day one million people rally in Pyongyang in support of the decision.

Mexico’s foreign minister, Jorge G. Castañeda, resigns, apparently as a result of his failure to achieve goals regarding relations with the U.S.; Luis Ernesto Derbéz is named as his replacement.

Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi sign an agreement to improve trade relations and seek a resolution to their long-standing dispute over ownership of the Kuril Islands.

The Sony Corp. of America names Andrew Lack head of Sony Music Entertainment, replacing Thomas Mottola, who is a top power in the music industry.

January 11

In the last two days of his term of office, Illinois Gov. George Ryan commutes the death sentences of all 167 people on Death Row in Illinois, saying that the system is flawed.

January 12

Stephen M. Case resigns as chairman of the media conglomerate AOL Time Warner; on January 16 Richard D. Parsons, the CEO of the company, is named to succeed him. (SeeJanuary 29.)

The ceremonial groundbreaking for Hong Kong Disneyland, a new theme park to be located on Lantau Island, takes place, led by Michael Eisner, CEO of Walt Disney.

January 13

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics reports that astronomers at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile and in Hawaii have detected three new moons orbiting Neptune; this brings the total number of the planet’s known satellites to 11.

The Voter News Service, owned by NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News Channel, and the Associated Press, goes out of business; the networks plan to have a new system in place in time for the U.S. presidential election in 2004.

January 14

Representatives of a newly created Islamic council in France are officially welcomed to a New Year’s reception by Pres. Jacques Chirac; the new council will help put Muslims in France on a more equal footing with members of other religions, which have long had their own councils.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration suspends 27 gene therapy trials after a second child in a gene therapy trial in France has developed a leukemia-like disease.

General Electric employees nationwide begin a 48-hour strike to protest a company decision to raise employee health care costs; it is the first nationwide strike at the company since 1969.

January 15

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin opens peace talks between the various factions in the civil war in Côte d’Ivoire.

A UN investigative team says that rebel groups in the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo last year carried out systematic atrocities, including torture, rape, and cannibalism.

In a televised address, U.S. Pres. George W. Bush denounces the use of racial preferences in university admission and describes plans to file a brief with the Supreme Court asking that the admissions policies at the University of Michigan, in which race is one of a number of factors considered, be found unconstitutional.

January 16

The space shuttle Columbia lifts off for a 16-day mission that is the first in three years not connected to the International Space Station or the Hubble Space Telescope; among its crew members is Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut in space. (SeeFebruary 1.)

Random House Inc. announces that it is merging two of its units, the Random House Trade Group, known for publishing literature, and Ballantine Books, known for mass-market paperbacks; Ann Godoff, the influential head of the former group, is forced out, and Gina Centrello, the head of the latter, becomes the head of the Random House Ballantine Publishing group.

UN weapons inspectors in Iraq discover at a storage bunker 11 empty chemical warheads and a 12th that requires further testing.

January 17

The IMF agrees to allow Argentina to postpone a $1 billion debt payment until August in return for which Argentina agrees to a program of fiscal policies supplied by the IMF.

The American financier Boris Jordan is fired as CEO of Gazprom Media in Russia and as director general of the popular television station NTV.

January 18

Tens of thousands of people in cities across the U.S. demonstrate against the U.S. government’s threat of war on the Iraqi regime; the biggest demonstration takes place in Washington, D.C.

Wildfires burning outside the city of Canberra, Australia, spread into town and destroy 402 homes; firefighters are unable to make headway against the fires.

In an exceptionally mistake-filled U.S. figure-skating championship competition, Michelle Kwan wins for the sixth consecutive time in the women’s competition, and Michael Weiss wins the men’s competition.

With their 55th consecutive win, the University of Connecticut Huskies set a new record for women’s college basketball.

Emperor Akihito of Japan undergoes prostate surgery; the open reporting on the subject is a first for the Imperial Household Agency.

January 19

The Yuzhengong Palace in Hubei province in China burns to the ground; designated a UN World Heritage Site in 1994, it exemplified a millennium of artistic and architectural achievement during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.

At the Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., best picture honours go to The Hours and Chicago; best director goes to Martin Scorsese for Gangs of New York; and the screenplay award goes to Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor for About Schmidt.

January 20

Iraq makes 10 specific commitments to the UN inspectors in response to their demands; key among them is the promise to press scientists to agree to private interviews with inspectors.

France announces that it will not support a UN resolution permitting military action against the Iraqi regime, should one be proposed.

In Geneva at a meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights, the U.S. insists on a vote for the chairmanship for the first time in the committee’s history, and, contrary to the desires of the U.S., Libya is elected.

January 21

The U.S. Census Bureau announces that the Hispanic population of the U.S. has grown to surpass that of the black population as a percentage of the total; at close to 13%, Hispanics are now the largest minority in the U.S.

Pres. Ismail Omar Guelleh of Djibouti visits U.S. Pres. George W. Bush in Washington, D.C., and is greeted with red-carpet treatment; Djibouti has become a staging area for U.S. troops in the Middle East.

North Korean representatives arrive in Seoul in order to resume high-level talks with their South Korean counterparts.

January 22

In elections in The Netherlands, the conservative Christian Democratic Party of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende comes in with the most votes, followed by the Labour Party, with the Pim Fortuyn List a distant third.

The U.S. deploys a system called Bio-Watch that uses Environmental Protection Agency air-quality monitoring systems to also check for the presence of germs related to biological warfare.

Researchers in China announce the discovery of a small feathered dinosaur with four wings and a plumed tail; about 76 cm (30 in) long, the dragonlike animal has been named Microraptor gui.

January 23

Australian forces begin heading for the Persian Gulf in support of a possible U.S.-led war against Iraq.

McDonald’s Corp., the biggest restaurant chain in the world, reports that in the last quarter of 2002 it posted a loss for the first time in its history.

It is reported that some 40 librettos of operas by Joseph Haydn dating from his lifetime have been serendipitously discovered in a secondhand bookstore in Budapest; these librettos were believed to have been destroyed in bombings during World War II.

January 24

Representatives of a number of Palestinian groups meet in Cairo under the guidance of Omar Suleiman, the head of Egyptian intelligence, to discuss a possible Palestinian cease-fire.

The U.S. plan to inoculate 500,000 health care workers against smallpox gets under way with the vaccination of four doctors in Connecticut.

A chartered plane carrying members of Kenya’s new government crashes on takeoff from the airport at Busia, killing the minister of labour and two others.

January 25

West African leaders meet in Paris to discuss the peace agreed to by the parties in Côte d’Ivoire, and Ivorian Pres. Laurent Gbagbo accepts the appointment of Seydou Diarra as prime minister to lead the reconciliation government. (SeeFebruary 10.)

Serena Williams defeats her sister Venus to win the Australian Open tennis tournament in her fourth straight victory in a major tournament; the following day Andre Agassi defeats Rainer Schüttler to win the men’s title.

Winning films at the Sundance Film Festival awards ceremony in Park City, Utah, include Capturing the Friedmans,American Splendor,My Flesh and Blood, and The Station Agent.

January 27

Hans Blix, the head of the UN weapons inspectors in Iraq, reports to the UN Security Council that the Iraqi regime has been insufficiently cooperative and does not appear to accept the need to disarm.

Kazakhstan reaches an agreement with a consortium led by ChevronTexaco that allows the consortium to run an expansion of the Tengiz oil field.

A retailing group consisting of Best Buy, Tower Records, Virgin Entertainment Group, Wherehouse Entertainment, Hastings Entertainment, and Trans World Entertainment announces plans to sell music to be downloaded from the Internet.

In horse racing’s 2002 Eclipse Awards, the filly Azeri, trained by Laura De Seroux, is named Horse of the Year.

January 28

In elections in Israel, there is no significant opposition to Ariel Sharon, and he retains his post as prime minister with a strong showing by Likud, his party.

U.S. Pres. George W. Bush delivers his second state of the union address; he stresses plans to revive the economy and his intentions to address what he portrays as the intolerable threat represented by Pres. Saddam Hussein of Iraq, and he pledges $15 billion to combat AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean.

A South Korean epidemiologist and expert on diseases associated with poverty, Jong Wook Lee, is named director general of the World Health Organization.

Claire Tomalin wins the 2002 Whitbread Book of the Year Award—given for books published in the U.K.—for her biography Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self; one of the other books in contention for the prize was the novel Spies, by Tomalin’s husband, Michael Frayn.

Norio Ohga, a longtime driving force behind the company, announces that he is retiring as chairman of Sony Corp.; simultaneously, the company says that it will adopt American-style auditing arrangements.

January 29

AOL Time Warner announces that CNN founder Ted Turner has resigned as vice-chairman and that for the first time the number of people subscribing to AOL’s services has declined. (SeeJanuary 12.)

Ukrainian Pres. Leonid Kuchma is elected chairman of the Commonwealth of Independent States; it is the first time since the alliance was created in 1991 that someone other than a Russian has held the post.

A French court of appeals overturns the conviction for corruption of former foreign minister Roland Dumas; he was convicted as part of the enormous Elf Aquitaine scandal.

The government of Nepal and Maoist rebels unexpectedly agree to a cease-fire.

January 30

The World Food Programme says that the food crisis in sub-Saharan Africa has eased everywhere except Zimbabwe, where conditions continue to deteriorate.

In Boston, Richard Reid, who pleaded guilty in a trial for having attempted to blow up an airplane with a bomb concealed in his shoe, is sentenced to life in prison.

Irish Minister of Health Michael Martin announces that, beginning next year, smoking will be banned in all places of employment, including restaurants and pubs.

January 31

A mob of 5,000 people throwing stones invades the airport at Port-Bouët in Côte d’Ivoire, terrorizing hundreds of French residents trying to flee the war-torn country.

The American Red Cross quarantines almost all of its blood supply for the state of Georgia and some of South Carolina because of unidentified white particles that have been found in some bags of donated blood.

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